The parent application, Ser. No. 943,424; filed: Dec. 19, 1986, introduced a new element to the computer age, known as the "variable comparator" (VC). The VC is a powerful computing tool that allows for processing to be performed in a SINGLE CLOCK CYCLE of computing operations.
In the past, computational mathematics performed by computing machines have been done sequentially, generating partial sums throughout the process, and eventually arriving at a total, representing the sum of the partial sums. With this method of computation, an inherrent degree of inaccuracy results, from inconsistencies within the system known as: "rounding errors".
Another drawback of the standard computer processing is the amount of time required to perform sequential operations.
A multi-dimensional processing unit configured with VC's in accordance with this invention, eliminates both of these undesirable drawbacks of slow speed and inaccuracy.
Because the inventive system is unlimited in Buss size, numbers of any degree of precision may be handled by the system.
Computing machines in general perform two tasks: Data storage and retrieval; and Mathematical computation. Both of these tasks are performed internally by the computing machine in a format known as Binary. Binary is a number system based on the powers of the number two (2). Decimal arithematic, as performed long hand is done in Base ten (10) or powers thereof. Both methods essentially accomplish the same results. The internal element performing the tasks in the computer is an accumulator. When an accumulator adds a series of numbers, for example, 20 different terms, it adds two terms at one time, generating a partial sum which it then sums with the next term until all the terms have been added together. This sequential process is very rapid, being accomplished within millionths of a second or less. Comparison tasks are also sequentially performed. The comparison process is performed by the computer by its search through its memory for a particular item for which information has been requested. The memory may be a "card Index" type file similar to that in a library. Searching is usually done at a rate of 8 binary bits or one printed character at a time.
For example, a book title: Evolution of Man and Animals, being twenty-eight (28) characters long, will require the computer to execute twenty-eight sequential comparisons each time it find a title that is close to that being searched. Even with the computer's high rate of speed, this task can be time consumming.
The multi-dimensional processor (MDP) of this invention accomplishes the above tasks by comparing information or data on a single image plane, i.e. complete pages, titles, and mathematical operations all at once, in one clock cycle.
MDP sees the world in data images or snapshots of entire text, not single character methodology. For this reason, MDP has a built-in speed advantage that is thousands of times faster than conventional sequential machines.
MDP does not perform actual mathematical computations when executing mathematical operations, and it quite simply knows what the sum will be of any given numbers.
MDP does not use an accumulator, because it does not add or subtract. Rather, it simply outputs the right answer, based on the law that governs digits 0 through 9.
This "law" establishes the relationship of these digits 0 through 9 as having a given set of combinations or permutations. As such, MDP applies this 0 through 9 law to any given problem, and simultaneously provides an answer in a single clock cycle.